Master Malstrom,
I’ve been reading your blog for more than 10 years by now, and this has been a hell of a good ride. So I was really sorry to hear about your condition. I send you my prayers!
I’ve been thinking more about death lately, been visiting cemeteries and looking to how death comes to any person no matter the race, gender, age, college degrees or career status. It is really the ultimate equality measure!! You have written once about what could gaming be in a time of war, which is a difficult social and public situation. But this is related to a more private and personal problem: what could gaming be in the face of one’s death?
There are practical matters that come first to mind: I, for one, certainly would DESPISE EVEN MORE the long loading screens, the long updates before playing for the first time, the long dialogues that get in the way of gaming… It seems, then, that contemporary gaming is completely unaware that we are all going to die. They consume our time without any mercy. And they offer very little meaning when it finally comes from waiting to gaming.
Developers today are just stupid young people who think they are going to live forever. Most young people are like that, and I don’t know if I blame them directly, because society today has become too safe. If our biggest problem right now is what bathroom is the right one for a person, or which words one can say or can’t, it seems, then, that no real threat is in the horizon of the consciences. But it is a bubble, because death always creeps in, sometimes personally, sometimes socially. I don’t want to be among the ones who will regret miserably all the time wasted on meaningless gaming when it pops.
I’m looking forward to see if your take on gaming will change over the next few years. From what I see, you are already a very good Memento Mori gamer and there were many many excellent insights that I got from this blog.
The kindest regards from a dedicated reader,
Long live Malstrom!
This email was also rescued from my spam folder. I wonder how many emails I’ve lost over the years because of this!
When a character is slain in Shakespeare, they suddenly become wise and start spitting the truth. They can fully realize their arrogance or folly as well as see the full nature of things with other people. This happens in real life as well.
John Adams once said at his old age, “There is not enough ambition… I mean that of the laudable kind.”
I’ve enjoyed gaming for its ambitions. People creating entire worlds on a floppy disk! I think there is always appreciation and respect for a game developer trying to push the envelope of gaming.
The only games I consider a ‘waste of time’ have been the online ones. I’ve never regretted multiplayer games with friends or even single player games. I see my time in World of Warcraft as ‘wasted hours’, for example, but I am fortunate enough to have quit the game when I did. The only other regret is that I did not buy MORE games especially the 8-bit and 16-bit variety. I also regret not buying a Sega Saturn during its time.
I actually see this blog more as ‘wasted time’ than anything… but your emails are arguing against that. I feel so worthless shouting words on the Internet that I’d rather make a game as atonement. We have plenty of loud people on the Internet, I want my participation in gaming to be more than that.
You are right that we are ‘too safe’. The correct term is ‘comfort zone’.
People say, “Time gets faster when you get older.” This isn’t true. It is ‘Time gets faster when you stay in the comfort zone.”
Remember when you were a child? The world was scary! Everything was getting outside your comfort zone. Learning to walk, going to school, asking a girl out, all of that was scary at first. And it should be scary at first. But time slowed down then, didn’t it? It is because we are not programmed to go against our comfort zones. It is the only way to live. To die in battle and not warm in bed is not a decree to live for death, it is a decision to strive.
We honor and respect the…
…explorer…
…inventor…
…warrior…
Even among politicians, we honor those who have gotten assassinated or shot. We honor and respect those who don’t live in the comfort zone.
Do something you’ve never done before. Watch time slow down. Now you’re fully alive!!!
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